Perhaps the most important thing I do as a cancer survivors' support group facilitator is remind people that they won't always be obsessed with cancer, and by extension, death, and thus, life. Barry's experience is very common: during active treatment -- however long it takes, and for thyroid cancer patients, it can take a year or two to get the medications adjusted properly -- not a day goes by that you don't think about the cancer and what it has done to your life. Your life is not your own, it belongs to the cancer.

It's only when you come out the other side and recovery begins that you can re-assume your "normal" life, which includes things like railing at traffic jams and wondering who ate the last Vienna Finger.

"Chemo brain" is akin to what thyroid cancer survivors call "hypo brain", and is a different thing entirely from what Barry writes about here. He has muddied the waters. Active treatment can sharpen your appreciation of what you have, but chemo or hypo brain is not a mood or a philosophical epiphany. It is a physical condition with many symptoms similar to clinical depression, and it's good that doctors are starting to pay more attention to alleviating it.

So incredibly true. When hospitalized, all I wanted in the whole world was to sit on my patio and feel the breeze. I would think about it for hours on end. The good news is if you survive, you hardly ever think about the sheer drudgery of fighting cancer. You have too much better to do, which is virtually everything else. It really can be a gift.